Burning the #EndSARS evidence

Who would have thought that something malevolently benign could come out of the monarchical autocracy in Eswatini. In case you’re wondering if Eswatini is the same thing as Wakanda, you are wrong. It was originally called Swaziland but its supreme ruler, His Majesty King Eswatini III lately renamed it Eswatini – the land of the […]

Who would have thought that something malevolently benign could come out of the monarchical autocracy in Eswatini. In case you’re wondering if Eswatini is the same thing as Wakanda, you are wrong. It was originally called Swaziland but its supreme ruler, His Majesty King Eswatini III lately renamed it Eswatini – the land of the Swazis.

This beautiful land-locked Kingdom is witnessing its own EswatiSpring a la Arab Spring as pro-democracy protests have overtaken the Reed Dance for months now. Efforts by the libidinous King Mswati III, to quell the protests have led to deaths, injuries and more protests. Eswatini is breaking from its iconic past where it made news only when King Mswati adds another maiden to his harem after the Reed Dance. He currently has 15 wives and nearly two dozens children.

Nothing inherently wrong in that if that is what the people want. However, Eswatinians want a bite off the apple of democracy, a lure as old and enchanting when Israel first dumped God for a King. The people want one-man-one-vote winners to run the show. Let us hope they are learning lessons from Egypt, Tunisia, the Gambia and Algeria – the mob may win the fight, but the politicians always dictate the end.

As the protest in Eswatini escalates; it is rumoured that King Mswati has ordered casualties to be cremated. It is one surefire way of removing the forensic evidence that could make a deposed king, or king in limbo (apologies to the sacked Kaduna public servant) face Fatou Bensouda at The Hague. The trouble in Africa is that bad inventions soon become the norm for a continent bedazzled with maximum rulers and pseudo-democrats. In our future, would the cremation of opponents become a fad employed by dictators Kashogiing opponents? Only time would tell.

If Muhammadu Buhari and his henchmen had thought about this alternative, all the noise about the first anniversary of the 2020 #EndSARS protests would have been silenced. HumAngle, an online publication known for its credibility has unearthed the forensic evidence that the regime wants to bury. In an exclusive report, the publication revealed the identities of the people killed at Lekki, the epicentre of the ´#EndSARS protest one year ago. Yes, indeed tell it to the man whose name rhymes with untruth that there was a massacre at Lekki.

The media is now awash with clips of Lai Mohammed asking for apologies from foreign media houses that carried the initial massacre story. Apart from using strong-arm tactics to prevent the anniversary from being marked, government would have loved to throw the evidence into the sea of forgetfulness. This hasn’t happened. Unfortunately, just as the leopard does not change its spots, the Nigeria police farce could change the nomenclature of its various hit squads, it could not change their time-tested tactics, the modus operandi or the modus vivendi. The police in Nigeria may be friends of every regime in power; it is no friend of the people it was established to serve and protect.

While a panel set up to investigate brutality was winding down in Lagos, a clip of how the police brutalize and extort the citizenry resurfaced somewhere in Kogi State. The greatest enemy of a brutal force is the incorporation of the camera into our daily lives. From the Kogi incident, it became evident that you can change the name of the outfit but you cannot change the ossified way it operates.

Our country’s leaders have their priorities misplaced. Nigeria has invested millions into Pegasus spy technology. Rather than use it to tackle insecurity and criminality, the machinery is deployed to spying on journalists, critics and those it perceives as enemies including individuals like Nnamdi Kanu and Sunday Adeyemo who are unnecessary creations of a failed state. While Buhari was able to track Kanu to Kenya and kidnap him; track Adeyemo to Benin Republic and trap him there; it has failed to protect the lives of over 1,000 school children that have been kidnapped for ransom under its nose.

If Buhari had worked hard at addressing injustice in the land, the likes of Kanu and Adeyemo would have petered into the abyss of irrelevancy where they belong. As Nigeria spends its hard-earned resources trying to prosecute these two, thousands of law-abiding citizens are unable to roam their country as a result of insecurity.

While the Buhari government constantly blocks and prevents conscientious reporting or free expression, parachute reporters sneak in, scoop on the regime with incredible success that is painfully embarrassing. Rather than face governance, this regime spends millions on foreign image makers trying to portray what is evidently not there. It is well known that helicopters use the cover of darkness to drop in supplies to insurgents while troops drink unsanitary water. While they buy tokunbo boots, insurgents are well kitted with resilient footwear. They also have more sophisticated weapons than the unserviceable guns issued by the army. You cannot win the war of insurgency with wishful thinking.

While failed commanders are made ambassadors, conscientious ones who get posted to the theatres of war with remarkable success are killed in action by ambush. Evidently the enemy is within monitoring and feeding the insurgency with tactics and routes – it is the common sense that is not common to the rulers benefiting from the war that has become business.

Nigerians are not surprised to hear that their government recently negotiated and paid millions of dollars to retrieve an anti-aircraft missile capable of downing Eagle One. It is no secret that those fuelling the insurgency and insecurity are well honed and in cahoots with their brethren in government. These ransom monies are laundered through banking systems that is supposed to be secure and well policed.

Nigeria’s allies constantly feed it with intelligence reports that are often not actioned. The UAE recently released to the regime the names of prominent Nigerians who are sponsors of terror, Nigeria’s attorney-general and its security ministers are sitting on this information because, obviously it would embarrass them. For these people, they’ll sacrifice Nigeria for their selfish gains.

It is being rumoured that bandits and insurgents were being rehabilitated into military and paramilitary forces in the name of ‘repentant’. Government talks more about those who are surrendering than its efforts to liberate those under the yoke of bandits and insurgents. Today, video clips are circulating affirming these rumours.

The Economist, another renowned publication has just released a damning report of the shame of the military suffering in spite of the humongous amount of money being budgeted for its upkeep. Anyone visiting a barracks already knows that money voted for projects never get to their intended targets. Our military academy was attacked at will without repercussion. Police stations and government buildings are serially targeted at will.

Anyone with a friend or relative in the military or paramilitary forces knows that they are being wasted in battle with obsolete and inoperable equipment. Government and the army react with the usual bombastic fury without substance. The fact that we are deploying almost half of police resources to conduct an election in one state is evident that we have lost it as a nation.

Nigerians have adopted a well-known stance – it is not true until government denies it. Would the regime be forced into burning the evidence of appalling human rights and security records or would it brace up and run a stable nation or would it continue as usual to hide under one finger?